Judgment on Corrupt Rulers, Priests, and Prophets

³ You have already spent enough time in doing what the gentiles like to do, living in debauchery, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.^{(A) 4} They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme.^[a](B)

¹⁸ Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,^(A)

²¹ But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee.^(A)

⁶ But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and she pleased Herod

²³ You have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven! The vessels of his temple have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have been drinking wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose power is your very breath and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored.^(A)

Belshazzar’s Feast

5 King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.^(A)

² Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the vessels of gold and silver that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.^{(B) 3} So they brought in the vessels of gold that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. ⁴ They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.^(C)